“Aren’t there some good Germans?” she suggested, adding that their daughter thought it unfair to condemn a whole people for the sins of some of them.
“Many good Germans have admitted to consciousness the call of destructive purposes, and have for the moment joined forces against us. For many years this preparation has been going on. No German who has ever admitted the forces of disintegration is quite free from them now. There were some officers who took their own lives and faced the consequences, rather than join forces with the dominant purpose of their people. No person can live in Germany now who is not party to disintegration. No German lives in the world, who still calls himself German, who is not party to disintegration.”
“You say they have ‘joined forces against us for the moment,’” I mentioned.
“Some of them will see light, and build forcefully for true progress. Some of them will destroy while they live. Some will be for years deterrent, and the end is impossible to foresee.”
A day or two after this, when I was alone, I asked Mary K. what Mr. Bruce meant by saying that once the call of purpose is admitted to consciousness, there is no choice but to answer.
“He meant that your personal struggle is only with the purposes admitted to consciousness. All forces are constantly trying to reach you, to enlist you for the great struggle. Once admitted to your consciousness, you have no choice but to answer, and the struggle between opposing forces is fought with your help. Many waver between the two, now lending aid to this one, now to that. A few choose instantly; some to progress, some to delay, some to build, some to destroy. This is what men call character.”
“He said also that no German who has ever admitted to consciousness the forces of disintegration is quite free from them now. Why?”
“Because there is in your life, as here, a group loyalty. But whereas here we are grouped by purpose, there you are grouped largely by geographical location. And any German who justified this war in the beginning is party to disintegration to some extent still. His group loyalty holds him, though his purpose protest. That will be the final test. Purpose, or finite loyalty to finite group.”
One or two interesting statements were made, about this time, during an interview with the widow of a well-known New York surgeon.
“Your husband’s work is healing still,” Mary K. told her. After enumerating the constructive purposes, she continued: “Healing was always his purpose, and he follows it still, with all his great force. He has a freer field here, and fulfils his purpose fully. That is the reason he is unable to be here to-day. The Germans are liberating many bewildered and fear-stricken souls, and all our great healers are held by their need.”